Passion for bats drives research

CSUF Biological science student Lauren Dorough conducts bat research in the San Gabriel Valley. She recently received a national award for her poster presentation about her research. COURTESY OF CSUF

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CSUF Biological student Lauren Dorough uses special equipment during her field work for her study about bats. COURTESY OF CSUF

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CSUF Biological science student Lauren Dorough (right) is conducting bat research in the San Gabriel Valleyunder the guidance of faculty mentor Paul Stapp (left), professor of biological science. She recently received a national award for her poster presentation about her research. COURTESY OF MATT GUSH

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CSUF Biological science student Lauren Dorough (right) is conducting bat research in the San Gabriel Valleyunder the guidance of faculty mentor Paul Stapp (left), professor of biological science. She recently received a national award for her poster presentation about her research. COURTESY OF MATT GUSH

CSUF Biological science student Lauren Dorough conducts bat research in the San Gabriel Valley. She recently received a national award for her poster presentation about her research. COURTESY OF CSUF

Bat species detected in San Gabriel Valley

Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis)

Yuma myotis (Myotis yumanensis)

Hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus)

Big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus)

Silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans)

California myotis (Myotis californicus)

Western red bat (Lasiurus blossevillii)

Townsend's big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii)

Source: Lauren Dorough, CSUF researcher

Bat species detected in San Gabriel Valley

Source: Lauren Dorough, CSUF researcher

From the time she was a kid, Lauren Dorough thought bats were “super awesome.”

“I was never one of the kids who thought that they (bats) were weird or gross,” said Dorough, who graduated from CSUF in May with a bachelor’s in biological science. “When I was a kid my parents had friends who were wildlife rehabilitators and I remember one time they had a bat and I just thought it was so cool.”

Dorough’s fascination for bats turned into her research project when she was accepted into SCERP (Southern California Ecosystems Research Program) at CSUF, a program that provides funding for research opportunities, travel and career planning for undergraduates interested in ecology and environmental biology.

“I was really curious to see what kind of bats we have present here and particularly how they are using urbanized environments,” said Dorough, who worked on her project with CSUF professor Paul Stapp for two years.

Dorough conducted her field work at four sites throughout the east San Gabriel Valley - Industry Hills Golf Club in City of Industry; South Hills Country Club golf course in West Covina; Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station in Claremont; and the Frank Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas.

Dorough used a bat detector to pick up the echolocation calls, or high frequency navigation noises that bats make, to determine the activity levels and species of the bats.

“As they are flying around they are basically screaming these really high frequency calls, but to the human ear we can’t hear them because they are so high frequencies, like a dog whistle,” she said. “Each species of bat has its own characteristic echolocation call, kind of like a birdsong; you can tell the difference between birds based on their song, like you can tell the difference between species of bats based on their echolocation calls.”

Dorough identified eight species of bats and found that the landscape of her study sites played a key role in tracking bat activity and diversity.

Golf courses like the ones used in her study are nestled in hillsides and have large trees and open bodies of water, said Dorough. The crevices of the hillsides and the holes in the trees provide roosting habitats for bats. Bodies of water attract insects, which is what most bats in Southern California eat, she said.

“What really surprised me was in the City of Industry, the Industry Hills Golf Course is just a dollop of green in this massive industrialized area and the fact that one night I got over 600 bat calls at this golf course, holy cow, because there is nothing around here that is natural, this golf course is the only thing providing resources,” said Dorough.

After collecting more than 6,000 bat calls during her entire research project, Dorough said she was never creeped out knowing that thousands of bats were flying and hovering over her head.

Bat activity is necessary in Southern California because bats are the primary predators of nocturnal insects, said Dorough. “One colony of bats could eat thousands of pounds of insects a night and if we didn’t have them and there weren’t this many, it would be terrible to go outside at night, there would just be insects everywhere,” she said.

Dorough won a best poster presentation award at the 2012 Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference in Seattle for her research project.

She completed her study in May and is currently working for an environmental consulting company as a biologist.

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